Today's recruiting roundup covers the latest on Drake Harris and Da'Shawn Hand, the potential Tarpon Springs package deal of Cole-Scott-Campbell, an offer to the son of a Michigan legend, and more.

In Our Base, Possibly Stealin Ur Dudes Anyway

Devin Gardner, Drake Harris, and Shane Morris, via Harris' Instagram

Grand Rapids Christian WR Drake Harris may be a Michigan State commit, but it's becoming clearer and clearer that he's a commit only by the loosest possible definition of the term. Harris admitted as much to 247's Steve Lorenz($) after taking in yesterday's game while sitting between Devin Gardner and Shane Morris:

"My commitment to Michigan State is a soft verbal right now and say that Michigan is up at the top as well," Harris said. "I really like being there a lot."

Reports flew around Twitter last night that Harris was spotted singing "The Victors" after the game, with some suggesting that Michigan has even opened up a big lead in his recruitment. While that may be going too far at this stage, it's clear that the Wolverines have made up a lot of ground, and they'll have the chance to continue that soon—Harris will be at the Indiana game on Sunday for his third visit in a matter of weeks. If Michigan isn't already in command, that trip could put them there.

A couple 2015 prospects were also on campus last week. Cass Tech quarterback Jayru Campbell was at yesterday's game; he told Scout's Josh Newkirk that the visit went well, and while Michigan isn't likely to offer him any time soon* it sounds like they'll be a contender if that does happen ($):

“They just told me they weren’t in a rush to offer me,” he said. “They told me to make sure I come to camp this summer and will sit down and talk again. But they’re really not in a rush to offer me. I guess they’re waiting to see my development…I like Michigan, so it would definitely be a school that I would want an offer from. I think it would be pretty interesting to get a Michigan offer.”

Campbell is a long way from making a decision—he mentioned a desire to play the hat game at the Under Armour All-American Game, which recently sent him an invite—so there's plenty of time for the Wolverines to evaluate him.

2015 Westerville (OH) OL Rob Dowdy made a mid-week visit, which gave him a chance to get some one-on-one time with Coaches Hoke, Borges, and Funk. After the visit, he told The M Block that Michigan is his top school despite growing up an Ohio State fan, though that's likely because the Buckeyes have yet to show much interest.

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*I don't think this is a sign that they're not very interested in Campbell—keep in mind how long it took for the coaches to offer a 2014 quarterback.

[Hit THE JUMP for the latest on Artavis Scott and George Campbell, plus much more.]

Package Deal Potential, But Maybe Not The One You Expected

Before Mason Cole committed to Michigan, he and high school teammate WR Artavis Scott—a fellow 2014 four-star—discussed the strong possibility of going to the same school. As is often the case with these things, however, it sounds like the package deal may fall apart—here's what Scott had to say to Scout's Anna Hickey ($):

“When we first started this recruiting journey together, we wanted to play together,” Scott said. “We had that plan in our minds and we were visiting all the same schools. I don’t really know about that anymore. He committed too early for me.”

Scott mentioned Michigan among four schools—the others: Clemson, Notre Dame, and Ohio State—currently in the most contact with him, and he also says he'd have no issue leaving his home state of Florida. By no means are the Wolverines out of it, but Cole's commitment may have less of an impact on his choice than many had hoped.

Meanwhile, Michigan made a huge impression on their 2015 teammate, probable five-star WR George Campbell, when he visited with Cole for the Illinois game last week. Campbell told Steve Lorenz that Michigan was his best visit and his interest would be high even if Cole wasn't a commit ($):

"Mason's decision is obviously a great thing in Michigan's favor," Campbell said. "But to be honest, the coaches did a good enough job of showing me the great parts of the program to make me want to visit again soon whether or not Mason was a part of the class."

Campbell has a visit set to Vanderbilt on the weekend of Michigan's spring game, so he'll be unable to accompany Cole on that trip, but he says he wants to make it back up to Ann Arbor in the spring or summer.

BREAKING

As I was putting together this piece, TomVH broke the news on the WolverineNation forum that the #1 overall prospect in the 2014 class, VA DE Da'Shawn Hand, will visit Michigan from March 15-17 ($). Getting Hand on campus at all is a big deal. Getting him on campus for a whole weekend is icing on the cake.

ALSO BREAKING: I AM OLD

Per Scout's Allen Trieu($), Michigan's latest 2015 offer went out to a 6'6", 240-pound TE/DE named Tyrone Wheatley Jr.—yes, son of that Tyrone Wheatley. The younger Wheatley mentions that he wasn't born until his father was in the NFL. Excuse me while I purchase a walker and dentures.

/drives at 15 miles per hour to the nearest pharmacy

Okay, I'm back. Wheatley also holds an early offer from Syracuse—he hails from Fayetteville-Manlius High School, just outside of Syracuse—and had some good things to say about his father's alma mater:

"I haven't really taken a visit up to the campus, but we used to live up there. Last weekend, my dad was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame, so we drove through there. I've been to games at Michigan before. It's great. They have a beautiful campus, everyone's crazy and wild, and they have amazing fans. It'd be great to play there. The renovations they made to the stadium are beautiful."

Seeing another Wheatley in the winged helmet would be a trip. Someone put the #6 jersey on hold, please.

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Embarrassingly, I still own my #6 jersey that I purchased as a M freshman in 1993. I usually break it out once or twice per season. I guess if Wheatley Jr. commits, I can feel good about getting a new one.

"You will suffer humiliation when the team from my area defeats the team from your area." -- The Onion

When I bought my #1 jersey (as a poor freshman shopping at the athletic department garage sale at Yost - LOVE that sale), the guy who had worn it that season was Greg McMurtry. That cat was smooth gliding across the middle.

My friend, if you saw the 3-400 pound patients I see every day, you would know that being able to wear a jersey from freshman year is definitely not embarrassing. It's impressive. Congratulations, you have survived America.

"Michigan Defense" is dominating everything, in every aspect of life. That's a rough definition.

"It would be a travesty, it would be ridiculous to all of a sudden come back and get the feeling back, get the health back, feel good again and then all of a sudden go throw some other colors on my shirt and go coach."

It's kind of baffling to me that Ohio hasn't shown any interest in Dowdy yet. Sounds like he's going to be a big time prospect and I would think Urban would be all over the OL recruiting considering how it's gone for him so far.

"Michigan Defense" is dominating everything, in every aspect of life. That's a rough definition.

Also, there's a 2015 QB from Brother Rice named Alex Malzone who fits the pro-style mode and is by all acounts a more polished passer than Campbell currently is. Wouldn't surprise me if he was the coaches' pick for QB in the 2015 class.

Also, there's a 2015 QB from Brother Rice named Alex Malzone who fits the pro-style mode and is by all acounts a more polished passer than Campbell currently is. Wouldn't surprise me if he was the coaches' pick for QB in the 2015 class.

Rice coaching legend Al Fracassa played at Michigan State and was once offered by Perles to take an assistant job, which he wisely passed on. I'm sure at the time it was a ploy to get one of Al's players (Yarema? Jokisch?). Jokisch was at the time actually a basketball recruit as part of the original "Fab Five" along with Gerald Henderson, Roy Tarpley, Richard Rellford, and Butch Wade. He played hoops as a freshman and was actually a fan-favorite for his hustle, though a bit of a wild stallion. Bo got him to go out for football and he was pretty damn good by the end of his career, a 6-8 split end with hands and faster than you think. He got drafted by the 49ers and lasted maybe a season before getting hurt. But he's a good guy, still living local, and seems to be doing very well.

"Just for once I'd like to see all these things sort of straightened out, with each person getting exactly what he deserves. It might give me some confidence in this universe."

is the last significant UM contributor from Brother Rice that I can remember. Might be missing someone but they usually end up at MSU. There were two high level prospects a few years back that both went out of state, a tackle to Tenn. and a LB to Penn St if I remember correctly.

was from Brother Rice, just an FYI. A little OT, his father, KC, was an ND stand out as a freshman LB but got injured as a sophomore and never played again. A big benifactor to ND sports and the university, his son Ryan was an All American kid, straight A's and ND didn't want him. So we were lucky enough to get him, great kid, great family. Their loss, our gain. I sure hope we can open that pipeline up again.

I'd be shocked if Campbell actually does that. Maybe he could do it at the 2014 game or something, but it's hard for me to imagine elite programs waiting that long and subjecting themselves to hat dance probabilities for their QB.

A no-doubt 5 star. He had a size/speed combo that is rare even today, and his speed was well documented thanks to his track exploits. If I'm not mistaken, he was regarded as the top RB in the country his senior year.

Fair enough, but I vaguely remember another elite athlete who nobody wanted to play QB going to a school just so he COULD play QB. I don't know enough of Jayru's situation, but maybe he has his heart set on playing QB at the next leve.

I just watched his freshman and sophomore highlights and it looks like he made huge strides in his technique but I see a lot of people mentioning his athleticism and it didn't really come through in the tape. He seemed to be good at scanning the field and making good throws but nothing really jumped out at me as far as gamebreaking speed. Am I missing something or did you see it when you saw him play?

The guy who runs it (Coach Brown) is a little rough around the edges at this point—so were Tom and Steve when they started, and I cringe re-reading some of my old stuff—but it's free info and legit. If two places have the same info I do my best to link the free blog over the paywalled content.

Why do people get huffy? Who gets huffy? Why are we using the word huffy? Haha. I'm trying to do stuff the right way and for some reason people are getting rubbed the wrong way and I'm not sure why. Oh well.

In high school, he was a member of state-champion teams in both track and field and football, and he was named Michigan's track and field athlete of the year and football athlete of the year in the same academic year. He earned All-America track honors in both high school and college.

I am occasionally reminded of how tough the NFL is by the success Wheatley had there. A 9-10 year career as an NFL RB is quite good, but this guy was one of the best college RBs I'd ever seen. I found it hard to believe that someone that good would be only decent-to-above-average in the NFL.

Between Wheatley and Butch Woolfolk I figured that every top Michigan RB would be able to run over LBs and outrun DBs - clearly that was our birthright :)

I've been waiting for some of the physical freaks from my youth to produce some recruits for the old Maize and Blue. Nice work Mr Wheatley. Mr. Steele, Mr. Woodson, Mr. Howard, Mr Messner....I expect to hear something soon.

I wonder if they will offer Shaun Crawford fairly soon. He supposedly ran a 4.34 40 at a recent camp and was said to be the best player attending. He's a little undersized, but has great film and some time to grow an inch or two.

I said before that I didn't think Crawford would get an offer anytime soon. Now, that doesn't mean that I don't think he ever will because he might, but even if he's super fast, I don't see the coaches offering a kid that size this early, unless he was truly elite, and since no other big schools have offered him, I'd guess that's not the case.

We've only offered 9 kids from the 2015 class, and I'm guessing most of the 2015 kids will have to wait until after the 2014 class starts to shape up before they get their offers.

That said, if Crawford can grow and inch or two, or prove that he's a lock down CB, I think he'll get himself and offer.

Wheatley develops as an athlete. His dad was a superb one as everyone here knows. He's got great size for a TE or DE, but it will be interesting to see if he has some of Tyrone Sr's speed.

At least it sounds like Artavis Scott still has interest in Michigan. He just isn't ready to commit. Let's hope Mr. Cole can keep working on him. Things sound dang promising with George Campbell. More 5* receivers please.

"You owe it to every man, woman, and child in the State of Michigan to beat the Buckeyes and silence their fans! Now go out there and make it happen!"